Woodworking blog entries tagged with '30 projects in 30 days'

Okay, so I’ve been good about the projects challenge, just bad about the posting. 27 days in, 1 project left to do… maybe I’ll wait until Friday night for some last minute, down to the wire drama!
Here’s a quick look at much of what has been going on in, and outside of the shop. Quite the mix of big and small. I wish I was able to do more “want to” than “have to” but I’m also VERY happy to have cleared a lot of those projects off the p...

Part of the problem, or challenge, of getting a project done every day (or doing anything in the shop ever) is the dance. The hop, skip and jump of winding your way around all the offcuts, jigs, scrap that too nice to trash, and trash that just doesn’t get out the door.
So, in my quest to move forward to having actual floor space, and plenty of covered storage for tools and materials, I’ve stepped away from the lathe, took some plywood and got started on some BIG storage boxes....

So, I’m a sucker for challenges. A few years back, the ‘Couch to 5k’ program got me running again after many years on the D.L. Last year I took on a “consecutive days of Geocaching adventure.” (think high-tech scavenger hunt if you’ve never heard of it) I started out attempting 30, then 100 days in a row, which fulfilled a couple of challenges I was going for. Then it was onward to 189 so I would surpass my record of days without geocaching. Yes, when I...

So here I am on Day 8 of what may, or may not be a run of thirty projects in 30 days. 30 new projects from scratch all started, and completed within the span of a month. This time, not limiting myself to a standard “30 day month” (April, June, November…) but just starting when I happened to begin, and will ride it out for as long as I can.
More to the point, I’m getting a new batch of salable projects ready for the gallery, plus a little backlog for the following sh...

or at least try to.
In the past I’ve taken a couple of stabs at turning out 30 projects in 30 days. My first attempt was the most ambitious, trying to churn out, not only a project a day for 30 days, but to make them also be a sellable one every day. In the end I created more than 30, and spent about as much time on the photographing and blogging as I did the actual work. Quite the busy month – perfect cover for my wife to catch me off guard with a surprise birthday party ̵...

I stuck my toe in the Etsy waters some months back… just to see what would come of it. It seemed a better idea to partner with my 30 projects in 30 days ventures than posting in albums on facebook.
I imagined that just having a presence could always leads to possibility… And this month feels like a small, but significant milestone was reached. 3 sales. Yes I know that doesn’t sound like much, but these three sales were to complete strangers. Not even friends of friends. O...

new photo… but it otherwise looks about the same as the beginning of the week, eh?
If only work was more considerate of my personal time plans. I had to head off to the wilds of Boothbay, Maine this week. The good news is I was gone and back in one trip. The better news, I “had” to stop by Woodcraft on the way there. The bad news, I couldn’t exactly get any projects done in the hotel room, so I just read turning magazines. I say hotel, twasn’t quite that...

Today marks my halfway point in this challenge!
I have to say this really is a challenge. If there is a struggle to find time for the shop, there is also a struggle to find a way to get the projects posted! I’m going to to my best and try and get all 30 projects completed before June 30.
Here are the latest submissions for my challenge:
yes, there are more wine bottle stoppers…
but I also found time to make some pens…
inbetween making bottle stoppers of course...

Well, it’s half way through the 30 Projects in 30 Days Challenge and it’s time for a bit of a review. Or, What I Learn on My Summer Vacation.
In two weeks, I have learned that if I need to, I can discipline myself to complete projects on a deadline. I have been known to start things and set them off to the side, but this challenge has put me into a position to complete what I start. That’s a good thing.
Coming up with a regular stream of projects is no small feat. ...

Okay, it’s Day 7, the end of the first week of the 30 projects in 30 days challenge. As of today, I’m a bit ahead of schedule, but for a reason. My daughter and grand daughter will be flying in from Arizona on Friday for the first time in about 2 years. So, I’m expecting my shop time to be diminished a bit.
I’ve got 5 pens (actually 3 pens and 2 pencils) which are pretty straightforward and fortunately don’t require a lot of shop time. Being a novice turne...